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A TOP Jay Slater investigator has claimed he has an audio recording key to the young Brit’s disappearance after accusing Spanish cops of ignoring evidence.
Mark Williams-Thomas – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – conducted his own investigation after the 19-year-old went missing on the island of Tenerife in June last year.
Jay Slater, 19, died while on holiday in Tenerife[/caption]
Jay pictured with mum Debbie[/caption]
The detective accused Spanish police of failing to investigate a key piece of evidence he had in his possession as he posted a seven-minute video on X.
Mr Williams-Thomas claimed the evidence – an audio clip – could have helped shed light on Jay’s mysterious disappearance before he was tragically found dead.
The ex-cop claimed he told the Spanish investigators about the audio clip, but they “never came back” to him.
He made the revelations as the Jay case was reignited after a near-farcical inquest this week at Preston Coroner’s Court.
Key witnesses – including Jay’s two friends Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves – who were with him the night before he vanished failed to appear.
The probe was adjourned as Jay’s brave mum Debbie Duncan made a desperate appeal for them to come forward.
Mr Williams-Thomas – who flew to Tenerfie last year to help hunt for Jay – hit out at the Spanish authorities and said he still sitting on a trove of evidence, including interviews with witnesses.
He offered to help both authorities in the UK and Spain to offer more closure to Jay’s heartbroken family.
Jay died after leaving an AirBnB where he stayed after a night out – with the inquest being told he suffered fall after setting out on a doomed hike back to his holiday accomadation.
But the circumstances of why he attempted the 10 hour walk home in blistering heat and the hours leading up to have death remain unclear and are the subject of feverish speculation.
Mr Williams-Thomas said: “I sent the information I had in an email to Spanish authorities.
“I told them I wasn’t able to share the audio recording at this point because I needed to explain to them how I had obtained it and also I was very conscious that it was highly sensitive and I didn’t want it just being shared all around.
“They’ve never come back to me.”
Mr Williams-Thomas revealed why he thinks the Spanish authorities ignored his tip during the search for Jay.
He said: “[Some countries] really don’t like working with the public to get information, they think they always know the answers”.
Apprentice bricklayer Jay travelled to the Spanish island in June to attend the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas with two friends, Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves.
The teen travelled to an Airbnb apartment in Masca with two men including Qassim in the early hours of June 17, before leaving at around 8am.
Jay, of Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, made a heartbreaking final call to his friend Law saying he had cut his leg, was lost, dehydrated and had just one per cent battery on his phone after he left the Airbnb.
Jay‘s disappearance and death remain largely cloaked in mystery and it is hoped that glaring gaps in his final movements will be filled after the inquest.
The inquest heard from three construction workers who said, via video link, they saw Jay on the main road through the remote village of Masca and he asked them about bus times.
He was attempting the treacherous 10-hour walk back to his apartment in Los Cristianos when he called Lucy to say he was lost.
DCI Rachel Higson, head of digital media investigations at Lancashire Police, told the hearing that Jay’s phone recorded “a lot of steps and inclines” between 7.59am and 8.49am.
His mobile last pinged in the mountainous Rural de Teno Park after Jay walked the wrong way from the Airbnb, and DCI Higson said there was “no data recorded” after 8.49:51am.
Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan pictured outside Preston Coroner’s Court[/caption]
Dad Warren Slater and brother outside the hearing[/caption]
After a month-long search, Jay’s body was found in a ravine on July 15 last year – near to where his phone last pinged.
A post-mortem examination concluded he died of traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height.
Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd today told the inquest Jay suffered a “heavy fall from height” and the “devastating” effects would have been “immediate”.
On Wednesday night, Law’s family revealed she was simply on holiday on the very same island where Jay died.
They claimed she was also unaware that she had been called to give evidence at the inquest.
Speaking at the family home in Burnley, Lucy’s stepfather Andy Davis said: “We had no idea Jay’s inquest was even being held today.
“The police have only just been round today to say that she was due to give evidence. But it’s the first time we knew of it.”
He added: “They asked if Lucy was home and I said she was abroad and they asked me if I was aware that she should have been in court, and I said I wasn’t.”
“The police said they had sent Lucy paperwork with the dates on it, but the first I knew about it was when the police turned up earlier today.”
Sources in the Slater family later said they were aware where the other missing witnesses were, and had also been able to find them easily, according to the MailOnline.
By Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
AS I stood in the sweltering, remote mountains of Masca, I was told the news Jay Slater’s loved ones dreaded – his body had been found.
But for his devastated family, it didn’t bring the closure they so desperately needed.
Now almost a year on, his grief-stricken mum, dad and brother have been subjected to yet more torment as an inquest into his death dredged up painful details of his disappearance – while lacking any actual answers.
Jay’s courageous mum Debbie Duncan opened up to me just weeks after his body was found about how she was tortured by not knowing what happened to her beloved son before he fell to his death.
I was humbled by the bravery she showed in the face of living every parent’s worst nightmare on the world stage – relentlessly hounded by mindless trolls.
Spineless witnesses failing to turn up to the hearing to provide crucial information is a kick in the teeth for Debbie and his already suffering family.
The 19-year-old went missing 11 months ago, and his body tragically discovered 29 days later.
So why after all these months has the court failed to bring together vital witnesses – including the two friends he was on holiday with?
After months and months of battling through their grief, the last thing Jay’s family needed was to face a farce of a hearing without the necessary witnesses.
Jay’s devastated mum Debbie beside his grave[/caption]
THREE children locked in a “house of horrors” by their parents for four horrific years are facing another heartbreaking struggle.
Christian Steffen, 53, and his wife Melissa Ann Steffen, 48, were arrested for alleged child abuse after the police raided the house in Spain.
Cops freed three young children from a house where they had been held captive since the pandemic[/caption]
The house was also full of rubbish and pet excrement[/caption]
The children were forced to sleep in caged beds[/caption]
The police found three young boys at the Oviedo home – dubbed the “house of horrors” – who are thought to have lived there for four years since the pandemic began.
The eight-year-old twins and ten-year-old boy were discovered in horrific conditions – each wearing three face masks and forced to wear nappies and sleep in caged beds.
And now, the tragic victims are reportedly set to be put into a children’s home.
The police said the house was full of rubbish and old medicines as well as filthy pet excrement and a cat with a massive tumour.
The children were reportedly kept out of school and were forbidden to leave the house.
A source close to the ongoing investigation said: “They had a timetable and a maximum number of times a day they could use the toilet because the rest of the time they had to wear nappies.”
The young boys were reportedly suffering from “severe constipation” when they were discovered because they weren’t allowed to go to the toilet when they wanted.
The parents also used black market medicines containing cannabis derivative THC to treat the kids for alleged deficit attention disorders which investigators say they are not even sure the youngsters were suffering.
The mum-of-three told cops they had asked officials in Germany – where they lived before moving to northern Spain – for permission to educate their kids at home after the initial Covid crisis.
The family emigrated after being warned that social services would be alerted if they took them out of school.
A guest room in the horror house had been turned into a makeshift classroom where the boys had reportedly learned to read, write and draw.
The police said the house was full of rubbish and old medicines as well as filthy pet excrement and used tampons.
But strangely the couple were reportedly using half a dozen air purifier machines they kept in their bedroom.
The children were reportedly told to lower the blinds on their bedroom windows at 5.10pm each day after being allowed to raise them exactly halfway up the windows during daylight hours.
They had no television to watch or electronic games to play with and wore pyjamas all day and all night – and many neighbours have admitted they had no idea anyone was even living in the house.
Cops were only called when a resident in the area raised the alarm.
The woman reportedly heard voices that sounded like children coming from the house despite never having seen anyone leave the house to play or go to school.
After several days of surveillance cops were clear that more than just the man they saw coming in and out had to live there.
The size of the boxes of food of the orders that the man brought into the home were the biggest giveaway.
Christian Steffen, 53, was arrested alongside his wife for alleged child abuse[/caption]
Chilling ‘screaming’ drawings of the three children held captive for 4 years[/caption]
But nothing could prepare the agents for what they would find when they entered the Josef Fritzl-esque horror house.
When they wanted to take them out of the building they did not even have shoes of their size as they had not bought shoes for years.
The police added that when the children were freed, one of them knelt on the grass and touched it with amazement.
An officer said: “They touched the grass and breathed fresh air as if they had never done so before in their lives.
“They saw a snail and they were completely taken aback.”
The chief commissioner of the Local Police of Oviedo, Francisco Javier Lozano explained the details of the operation leading to the arrest of the couple at 2.45pm on Monday.
The initial search of the house was reportedly made more difficult because Spain had been plunged into darkness by the electricity outrage.
When the cops knocked on the front door, the father answered but asked the officers to wait for a few minutes so the children could put their masks on.
One police officer told the Spanish press: “They were very scared and around the mother, who told us all the time that the little ones had serious pathologies and that we should not approach them.
THE twisted dad asks his daughter Elisabeth to help him install a door in his cellar in 1984.
She agreed and moments later she is drugged with an ether-soaked towel, tied up and chained to a bed.
She would spend the next 24 years locked up in the hellish prison in Amstetten.
Evil Fritzl went on to rape her over 3,000 times in rat-infested bunker.
He would beat and kick her and force her into degrading acts – including re-enacting scenes from violent porn films.
Elisabeth gave birth to seven babies in the cellar with no medical care.
Kerstin, born 1988, Stefan (1990) and Felix (2002) were left to live with their mum in the underground hellhole.
But Lisa, (born 1992) Monica (1994) and Alexander (1996) – were raised upstairs, by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie after he convinced her they were left on the doorstep by Elisabeth.
Alexander’s twin Michael died shortly after birth with cruel Fritzl tossing his body in an incinerator.
The family’s nightmare sees Fritzl threatening them if they dare to escape and punishing them by switching off the electricity.
Their nightmare comes to an end when Kerstin fell critically ill in 2008.
Fritzl allowed Elisabeth to take her to the hospital where she revealed the shocking horrors she had suffered.
Despite trying to argue he was trying to be a protective father, Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison in 2009.
“They had three masks each on top of each other. They were oblivious to any contact with reality.”
Lozano added: “We have dismantled the house of horrors”.
Having been checked out at the Central University Hospital of Asturias the children have now been placed under the guardianship of the Government of the Principality.
And the boys’ parents have been warned they face possible prison sentences of between five and seven years.
They are being investigated on suspicion of domestic violence, psychological mistreatment and child abandonment.
It is not yet clear who is defending them, but lawyers hired by the couple are expected to consider an expert analysis of their clients’ mental health amid speculation it had suffered as a result of the Covid crisis.
Christian reportedly worked as a freelance senior tech recruiter and HR manager, having obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Hamburg University.
He previously worked as a marketing consultant and head of a call centre at a telecommunications company.
The family’s house in Oviedo, northern Spain[/caption]
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